The Hotel Artemis is the creation of some of the richest people on Earth: a luxury hotel on the moon that takes three days to reach and god knows how much money to book. The first guests, however, got their reservations for free after winning a global lottery. Billions would be beyond excited to be the first people to visit but as Detective Penelope Strand tries to put on a good face during the pre-visit PR events, she is a quivering ball of anxiety and fear. Unlike the rest of the cast of Lauren Forry’s fascinating new novel, The Launch Party, Penelope is going to the moon to help conquer her phobias. Unfortunately for her, she soon also has to deal with the first murder on the moon.
It’s clear from the first pages of The Launch Party that there is going to be a murder. Penelope’s fellow guests include: a racist German lawyer; an obnoxious fanatic who finally gets to meet his reality TV idol, who is also a guest; a psychologist who likes to needle people; a brash tabloid journalist; and a bunch of other folks who clearly have secrets that could quickly become motives. The Hotel Artemis is the ultimate locked room to bottle up these characters until someone snaps and whacks somebody—especially once the guests realize that there are no staff at the hotel. Seriously, make some popcorn before starting this book; it’s quite the show.
It takes mere hours for the first body to show up. Penelope is very clear that she has none of her usual tools to figure out what happened and, besides, the moon is outside of Scotland Yard’s jurisdiction when another guest stumbles onto the gruesome scene. Still, she’s the only person around who has even a vague notion of what to do while the living wait for someone to respond to the emergency signal. The plot races along as Penelope and her fellow guests search for clues and try to keep safe from the killer in their midst.
I had a blast reading The Launch Party and strongly recommend it to readers looking for an unusual mystery.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss, for review consideration.
